State of Irish Tenantry. sy 



highways and great roads, for which such large 

 assessments are made on the counties, afford, for a 

 portion of the year, a great source of employment. 



If the Irish have not the laborious habits of 

 the English, it ought rather to be considered 

 a misfortune, than to be imputed to them 

 as blame. Industry is an acquirement of early 

 life, and becomes strengthened and habitual by 

 years. In a country where there is liMe de- 

 mand and no encouragement for industrious 

 exertions, it cannot be surprising that this habit 

 is not acquired. The women also, having no 

 vocation but that of attending to their families, 

 are equally indolent, and thus the offspring of 

 such parents are nursed in sloth and nurtured 

 in idleness. 



The minute subdivision of lands among the 

 occupants is attended with many serious evils. 

 The rents of these small sublet parcels become 

 so high to the actual cultivators, as to preclude 

 all profitable returns from their labour. It 

 affords " too great a facility to marriage." The 

 population becomes increased beyond the 

 capital of the country employed in husbandry, 

 and the supernumerary individuals are compelled 

 to subsist on the produce of others' labor, to 



